This article investigates the emerging affix -iota in Italian, whose development is related to the morphological reanalysis of the word italiota as a blend of italiano 'Italian' and idiota 'idiot'. Based on data extracted from a web corpus, the analysis addresses the morphological properties of blends containing the adjective -(id)iota and the usage contexts of italiota, focusing on the semantic fields of its collocates. We found that blends with both -(i)diota and -iota are productive and that -iota displays affix-like properties and a derogatory meaning, especially in political discourse. This study confirms that the parts of blends belonging to extra-grammatical morphology (Dressler 2000; Mattiello 2018) can undergo a change that leads them to acquire affix-like properties and get closer to more regular morphology.
Bagaglini, V., Micheli, M. (2022). The emerging Italian affix -iota between blending and derivation: A corpus-based analysis. ITALIAN JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, 34(1), 31-57 [10.26346/1120-2726-183].
The emerging Italian affix -iota between blending and derivation: A corpus-based analysis
Micheli, Maria Silvia
Secondo
2022
Abstract
This article investigates the emerging affix -iota in Italian, whose development is related to the morphological reanalysis of the word italiota as a blend of italiano 'Italian' and idiota 'idiot'. Based on data extracted from a web corpus, the analysis addresses the morphological properties of blends containing the adjective -(id)iota and the usage contexts of italiota, focusing on the semantic fields of its collocates. We found that blends with both -(i)diota and -iota are productive and that -iota displays affix-like properties and a derogatory meaning, especially in political discourse. This study confirms that the parts of blends belonging to extra-grammatical morphology (Dressler 2000; Mattiello 2018) can undergo a change that leads them to acquire affix-like properties and get closer to more regular morphology.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.